And before I get a lot of negative feedback from those that are running the giveaways, just look at some very recent examples.

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The Massive Summer Giveaway

-Started June 16th (Stats as of August 31)

-Confirmed Contributors 514

-Confirmed Members 1357

-Upgraded Memberships 108

The Great Olympic Giveaway 2008

-Started August 5th (Stats as of August 31)

-Confirmed Contributors 246

-Confirmed Members 402

-Upgraded Memberships 35

Hot Summer Vacation Giveaway

-Started July 31st (Stats as of August 31)

-Confirmed Contributors 299

-Confirmed Members 514

-Upgraded Memberships 31

Auto Pilot Cash Streams Giveaway

-Started August 1st (Stats as of August 31)

-Confirmed Contributors 5556

-Confirmed Members 2603

-Upgraded Memberships 597

* Note that Contributors outnumber Members almost 2 to 1!

The Viral Rebrandable Money Machines Giveaway

-Started August 12th (Stats as of August 20)

-Confirmed Contributors 410

-Confirmed Members 846

-Upgraded Memberships 80

Learn The Internet Giveaway Started July 1st (Stats as of August 31)

-Confirmed Contributors 405

-Confirmed Members 425

-Upgraded Memberships 98

The Dog Days Of Summer Giveaway

-Started August 18th (Stats as of August 31)

-Confirmed Contributors 139

-Confirmed Members 494

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So what do the above figures tell you?

If you are considering signing up as a contributor:

* You certainly don't want to spend a cent for an upgrade. The number of visitors cannot justify any additional expense! * Don't spend and inordinate amount of time preparing a gift for inclusion. I would like to stress again, the number of visitors simply can't justify the time you would normally spend preparing a great gift. * Don't bombard your subscribers with the latest giveaway news. Once, maybe twice, should be the max. Most have already been receiving dozens of promotions already so why beat a dead horse.

If you are going to sign-up as a member:

* Keep from signing up to every single giveaway you see. That really doesn't make sense as there is so much product duplication. Sign-up at 2-3 of the better giveaways and grab gifts that you know will add some benefit to your knowledge or business.

If you are going to start your own giveaway:

* Congratulations! These are about the only marketers building lists and making money (mostly from upgrades). * But look at the above figures before you take that step to organize your own giveaway. Most are spending a lot of time preparing for the giveaway and the results can't justify the investment in most instances.

So what are some of the reasons most giveaways doing so poorly?

Wow...And Yet Another JV Giveaway Has Launched!

Enough already!

Okay, giveaways are a very good way to build your subscriber list.

And for the past 3 years we have been telling subscribers that it is the "Best Way To Build Their Subscriber List"!

But times change and what was good yesterday doesn't always mean it is good today.

Although JV Giveaways are still a good way to build your lists, they may no longer be the best way to build your list.

Why?

Too many JV Giveaways with too much duplication of products and too many 'unreasonable demands' being placed upon the contributor to keep their item listed.

One has to wonder what these marketers are thinking (if they are) when they offer another giveaway and are still using guidelines established over 3 years ago when it was rare to have more than one giveaway a month.

To put it more than mildly, "the little guy is getting screwed"...and in a royal fashion.

Don't believe everything you read. By that I mean you cannot rely upon the numbers being tossed about by the marketers running most of the giveaways. Most claim that you can expect tens of thousands of people to sign-up to get the free gifts. And they should know better! In reality, a few years ago such numbers were the reality. But today, "MOST JV GIVEAWAYS" are getting fewer than 2- 3 thousand sign-ups. It appears that in some instances, there are more contributors than member sign-ups.

And yet, the marketers running the giveaways are demanding that you earn enough points by sending traffic to the giveaway by a certain date or run the risk of having your gift removed.

And that demand makes it almost impossible for you to keep your gift displayed because the numbers required are unrealistic. The numbers made sense a few years ago but are meaningless today. And most of the marketers realize that fact.

A few years ago when there were only 1-2 JV Giveaways per month it was not unusual to see 10,000, 50,000, or even 100,000 visitors. But now there seems to be a glut of giveaways being produced and running at the same time. There are already 10 giveaways scheduled to begin during August...more in one month than you had in all of 2006!

That means that most giveaways are complete failures while the few remaining giveaways deliver mild to moderate results.

The marketers do offer you an option in most instances!

You can pay $10 - $67 to get your gift listed in the "Hot Downloads" section or to receive enough points to guarantee your gift will not be deleted.

But what are you really paying for? If the giveaway in question, isn't really producing traffic, traffic you rely on to build your list, then your investment is far from being a wise one.

We participate in most giveaways and from time to time we will take advantage of the upgrade offer to get our item listed in the "Hot Downloads" and/or to obtain enough points to assure that our gift will not be removed.

But we have a simple guideline that we follow and we suggest that you follow it as well.

Never pay more than $27 for the upgrade! And even then, that upgrade should include your ability to display up to 3 different gifts.

So if JV Giveaways are no longer the best way to build your list, what is?

Article Marketing is one good alternative.

Write short articles and submit them to 5-10 of the best article sites. It is free and you'll see much better results.